Harry Returns
by Nargled
Summary: Harry Returns. To fight the real battle. Minerva won't know what hit her.


Harry Returns

Another little drabble that wouldn't let me be. Some revolutions are quiet and sneak up on you, and are completed before you even know it….

As usual, I am farther from owning anything Potter than ever, and I thank JKR for allowing us to play on her beach.

_Dear Aunt Minnie,_

_I know this isn't the usual time for my annual letter, but I've heard through the grapevine that you are looking for new professors at Hogwarts. I am most interested in discussing possible employment options with you. _

_After twelve years, I think it might be time I come home._

_Sincerely yours,_

_Harry Potter_

_Enc: CV_

Minerva McGonagall set down the letter after reading it for a second time and smiled. She felt privileged that she was one of the few that Harry kept in contact with. Each December, just before Christmas, she would get a letter detailing his past year's activities and adventures. The first year or two, he seemed lost, aimless. A brief relationship with Ms. Granger didn't work out, much to her disappointment. Then he seemed to pull himself together, studying for and passing his NEWTS quite well.

Instead of training for the Auror Corps as she and everyone else expected, he took off around the world, with no set itinerary. Despite his wanderings, he no longer seemed lost or aimless. His next few letters detailed travels to nearly every continent, with an eighteen month stop in Australia during which time he successfully tested for his Defense Mastery. Another year of travel, then he returned to England, to study at a Muggle university of all things, eventually getting a degree in History. He reconnected with Teddy and Andromeda, but still remained otherwise reclusive, and she had yet to actually speak to him. She wrote him from time to time, via Gringotts, but he still only wrote once a year. She was looking forward to finally seeing him in person. A glance at the clock showed that he would be here momentarily. Though he was the last to write her about a possible job, he was the first to actually meet with her.

She was currently faced with an unprecedented situation, as over half her faculty were trying to retire at once. They'd made it through the war, and the recovery, and had reestablished Hogwarts as the premier school of Britain. But they were tired. The scars from the war were deep and numerous. The common theme was it was time, and finally safe to do so.

Vector and Babbling were the only two professors staying on. Fortunately, enough time had passed so that many of that most remarkable class of students had gone on to get Masteries of their own, and were also willing if not eager to teach at Hogwarts.

Neville Longbottom for Herbology. Padma Patil for Charms. Daphne Greengrass for potions. She was ecstatic over poaching Hermione Granger from the Ministry for Transfiguration. Divination was no longer offered, thank Merlin. She was slightly leery of Luna Scamander for Care of Magical Creatures, but her credentials were impeccable, and her contributions to the field immense. Ron Weasley had been pestering her for flight instructor and Quidditch referee for years. It was only a part time job, but that would allow him to continue his work at WWW. She'd already had a long and mostly one sided conversation about their products in the school.

Her only problem, now that she was confidently putting Harry into the Defense position, was assigning Heads of House. Greengrass was an obvious choice for Slytherin, as was Patil for Ravenclaw. Unless Granger wanted it. Just so it wasn't Scamander. She loved Luna dearly, but Head of House?

She had been hoping either Granger or Longbottom would take Gryffindor, but that would leave the other needing to take Hufflepuff, and still after all this time Hufflepuff was seen as an afterthought. Neville might have been a good fit, but he pulled the Sword of Gryffindor from the hat for Merlin's sake. Hard to beat that as a qualification for her old house. Now with Potter she had three for Gryffindor and still no one for Hufflepuff. She rubbed her temples. It seemed every solution brought with it two more problems. Good problems, true, she was spoilt for choice, but she wanted everything tucked away neatly.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her door.

"Enter."

The door opened and Harry Potter stepped through. She was immediately struck by how _big_ he'd gotten. Several inches taller, and while he wasn't burly by any means, he'd filled out very well, and was obviously quite fit. It just made her all the more happy to see him, as did the smile on his face.

"Headmistress—"

He stopped in surprise as she dropped all her usual decorum and met him half way across the room in a big hug.

She let him go, and had to wipe her eyes. "Ah, my wee bairn, it's so good to see you." She gripped his shoulders. "Not so wee, and not a bairn, though are you? You look wonderful." She wrapped him in another hug.

Harry returned it more firmly this time, with a laugh. "Thank you, Headmistress McGonagall—"

She released him, and led him to the chair in front of her desk. "Minerva, please."

"—Minerva, then. It's good to see you too. And, yes, the last few years have been good for me."

"Yes, yes they have. You look…happy."

"I am, actually."

"About time. If anyone deserves to be happy, it's you."

"Thank you."

"Well, I must say that your application came at the most opportune time. Nearly my whole staff it seems is quitting on me, not that I blame them. I've been so fortunate that many of your classmates have stepped up to replace them, it'll be almost like a class reunion, but Defense still seems to—"

"Ah, Minerva—"

"—go through more than its fair share of Professors. But then your letter came, and it's not even Christmas—"

"Minerva—"

"Of course now, I don't know how I'm going to tell Neville or Hermione they won't be Head of House for Gryffindor, or which is going to have to take Hufflepuff, but really —"

"Minerva!" Harry was finally able to break through her near giddiness. "I know you're happy over your applicant pool, some of us have been in contact, and it will indeed be marvelous to see them again, but I'm not applying for the DADA position."

"What?"

"I'm applying for Muggle Studies—"

"What?"

"Muggle Studies. I have a degree in Modern British History, and passed my A levels in biology, math, and physics. Though compared to the professors you've had up until now, just being able to take the Tube to Charing Cross should qualify me. I'm not sure Professor Blankenship has ever actually met a Muggle."

"But…you have a Mastery in Defense…." Minerva seemed to be having a hard time keeping up. Muggle studies hadn't even made it to her list of things to worry about. It was always filled by whoever wanted it, usually someone near retirement from something else, wanting to ease their way out, but now able to say they'd been a professor at Hogwarts. She hadn't even posted the job yet, and briefly wondered how Harry knew it was open.

"Which according to the charter, allows me to teach here. It doesn't dictate what I teach. To teach Defense does require an actual Mastery in defense, but Muggle Studies just requires a NEWT in Muggle Studies and a Mastery of any kind. Having reviewed the records, even that's not been regularly enforced. And in my mind, a university degree is probably better than a mastery anyway. The only criteria for getting a mastery is that your Master says you deserve one. There's no generally accepted standards at all."

Minerva sat back in her chair, stunned. Her mind was struggling to reconcile the last few months of joyous planning with Harry smashing those plans to pieces with the least likely of alternatives.

"Well, at least you can be Head of Gryffindor…" she tailed off as she saw him smiling and shaking his head.

She groaned. "What now?"

"I'm applying for Head of Slytherin."

"What?" this time at significant volume.

"Slytherin. It'd be the best place for me, I think."

"But, but…." There were so many things wrong with that, but the only the only thing to make it out was "I was going to give that to Ms. Greengrass."

"We've already talked. She wants Hufflepuff."

"She…wants…Hufflepuff?" Every word in that question seemed both wrong and impossible.

"Yep."

"What about Gryffindor?"

"Neville wants that, and he'd be a much better fit. Can you imagine what the kids would get up to if I was Head, trying to 'live up to' my imagined standards? The castle wouldn't make it intact through the first year."

Minerva nearly snorted at that. It was the only thing that she agreed with him on so far. She started to wonder who else he'd talked to.

"And Ms. Granger?"

"She'd much rather not be Head of House. A certain department at the Ministry might need her to moonlight on a few projects, so she needs to keep her evenings free."

She just sat and stared at him. Finally a small wry smile touched her face. "I should have known better than to expect things to go to plan once you got involved. You all seem to have it all worked out, don't you. Except perhaps who's going to teach Defense instead of you."

He smiled again. "You have that worked out as well?"

"Well, as a Defense Master, I can take on candidates of my own. I just passed Dennis Creevy, and he's quite keen on teaching." He handed her a roll of parchment. "His application."

He sat pensively for a minute. "We've been through a lot, and not just the war. We've studied, and traveled, and as much as Hogwarts was my first home, there's just so much… wrong with it and Magical England still, that we had to intervene."

Minerva sat up, a look of both shock and anger on her face. He held up his hand to forestall her objections.

"I know I'm upsetting your world view, but it seriously needs upsetting. You and the staff have done an incredible job restoring the castle, and reestablishing Hogwarts' glory, but you've gone too far back to what things were before. You still use parchment and quills. By the time you finally adopt pen and paper, the rest of the world will have given them up entirely for electronic communication and the occasional printed document."

"But Harry, traditions are important…"

Harry nodded. "The war was a horrible, terrible thing. But a large part of it can be traced back to the 'traditions' learned here at Hogwarts. Tom Riddle was taught and trained here. _Every single Death Eater_ passed through here, most taught by Dumbledore, you, and some of the current staff. Slytherin House has been basically the recruitment center for domestic terrorists for nearly a century. Some of the Death Eaters were _third generation_, students encouraged to join Riddle by their parents, then encouraging their children as well. Riddle didn't come up with anything new, he just capitalized on what was already here and worked his way to the top. The corridors were training grounds for assaults on anyone not pureblood."

"Then these people graduate, and, following tradition, those with family connections, ie the purebloods, get jobs at the Ministry, or inherit their pureblood seats on the Wizengamot, and perpetuate those same attitudes and traditions, this time via laws, rules, regulations, and policies."

"Voldemort wasn't an aberration, he was completely predictable. His only problem, other than being totally insane, was that he was _impatient_. Getting elected Minister or Chief Warlock would have taken too long, and he'd have to deal with things like decorum and procedure. Even after completely taking over, he put minions in place to do his bidding and handle all the day to day tedium while he ruled from Malfoy Mansion."

"Is it any wonder that even today Hermione is literally the only 'muggleborn' that works at the Ministry outside of the janitorial staff or secretarial pool? And that's only because she's twice as smart as anyone else there. The rest end up emigrating to the States or Australia."

McGonagall thought of her collection of letters and postcards from many of her previous students. She'd always thought that they were so fortunate to be able to travel overseas. She'd never considered that they'd actually been forced to. Had she really been part of that?

"My father, mother, hundreds of others, and even I, gave our lives to fight all of that." McGonagall's eyes widened at this. Details of Harry's actions were still largely unknown.

"And while brave and noble and all that, it wasn't enough. So I'm here to finally fix it. And if it takes twenty years of teaching that ignorance of 99% of the world and hexing people in the corridors is not something to be proud of, then that's what I, we, are going to do."

"That's what the others and I want to fix. Turns out we won the battle, as children no less and don't get me started on all the things wrong with that, but lost the war. We're ready to fight it again, and the it's the halls and classrooms and common rooms of Hogwarts where it will be fought. The children of Magical Britain are here nine months of the year, for seven years. If we can't change their outlook on life in that time…." He left it there.

Harry saw the contemplative look on her face, and nearly sighed in relief. She would come around, and wouldn't have to be eased out. He looked up at the top of the shelves behind her. "What do you think, Hat?"

Hat stirred to life. "Thanks for revealing that I'm awake for more than just one day a year."

Harry laughed. "I did no such thing. I just asked you a question. You're the one that answered."

Hat grumbled to itself before answering. "I wanted to place you in Slytherin on day one. Glad to see you're finally taking my advice."

Minerva's jaw dropped at that. "You can't be serious."

Hat harumphed. "I'm never anything but serious about sorting. It was an integral part of my creation."

She looked back at Harry.

He just shrugged his shoulders. "This is both the best prank I've ever pulled, and the most serious thing I've ever done. And this is my other pet peeve. The house system is merely a way of breaking up the students into roughly equal portions. It shouldn't be a way of dividing and marking them for life. What house I was in, or might have been in, is _completely meaningless_, to this discussion and everything else."

"But Harry, I need you where you can do the most good."

He just smiled. "Exactly," he said as he slid over the completed applications for Muggle Studies and Head of Slytherin.

A/N: Plot rule violation: Chekhov's gun. If there's a gun hung on the wall in scene one, it must be fired by scene two or three. Harry would be 'great in Slytherin,' and never does a single Slytherin thing the rest of the series. Potter wiki is self contradictory, saying in one paragraph that Harry is "clever, resourceful, and cunning," therefore worthy of Slytherin, (I'll give you resourceful, I'll disagree with the other two (I can think of only two times where we're in Harry's head while he's thinking, Hagrid and the dragon egg, and the internal debate over the Hallows)), but says just a couple paragraphs later: "According to Rowling the hat detected the piece of Voldemort's soul in Harry which strongly tempted it to put Harry in Slytherin."

I've read too much fan fiction so that my memory of what's purely canon is fuzzy, but other than the 'bee in your bonnet?' question from Hat to Harry, is there any sign that Hat is awake during the year and that anyone else talks with it? If not, another violation of Chekhov's gun. Hat's a thousand years old, and has sat in the Headmasters' office the whole time. It should write the next edition of "Hogwarts: A History." And I do enjoy fics that have Hat as a more prominent character. So it gets a cameo here, and its prediction fulfilled.


End file.
